Dennington Station
Line: Geelong and Warrnambool
Distance from Melbourne: 272.002 km
Track Diagram: View
Google Maps: Satellite / Map
Dennington was once a passenger station, but in later years remain open for briquette traffic to the adjacent Nestle factory. The station was located north of the Drummond Street level crossing.
As far back as 1897 the station was no-one in charge, in October 1898 staff locks were provided on the main line points, and in January 1899 the signals were removed. In March 1910 the station was upgraded to being staffed under caretaker conditions.
By December 1909 a private siding for the Anglo Swiss Condensed Milk Coy (today Nestle) was opened leading from the loop siding, in June 1929 a second siding was provided for the company. In November 1925 an additional siding was opened at 168 miles 67 chains for the British Imperial Oil Coy (now Shell). The 1929 track chart of the line showed the platform on the north (up) side of the line, with a three road yard, a oil siding on the dead end extension to the Warrnambool end, and a number of sidings leaving into the Nestle factory.
In June 1941 the station was made no-one in charge. Flashing lights were provided at the Princes Highway level crossing in June 1955, the oil siding and up end points were also fitted with Annett locks at this time. Dennington was closed to passengers on September 1, 1958 with the passenger platform removed by September 1959.
On September 10, 1977 the line beyond Dennington to Port Fairy was closed, two months later the Electric Staff safeworking system was replaced by Train Staff and Ticket working. By 1978/79 the station the single fuel depot owned by Shell remained, but it did not see regular rail traffic.
In September 1979 two of the lower level Nestle sidings were taken out of use, in February 1985 the flashing lights at the Drummond Street level crossing were converted to manual operation. In April 1988 the line was Warrnambool was downgraded to a siding.
The last briquette train ran in 2002, the after the boilers had been converted to natural gas. By this time Dennington had a single loop siding, and a dead end siding headed south into the Nestle factory. The line ended west of the loop siding, in a set of baulks. Beyond here Nestle occupies the land to run piping to a water treatment plant, and then beyond is the trestle over the Merri River.
Diagrams
NOTE: Diagrams are not to scale.
Photos
Nine of 18 images found displayed. Click them to enlarge.
 Bridge over the Merri River for the line towards Port FairyOctober 17, 2008 |
 Fonterra factoryOctober 17, 2008 |
 Drummond Street LX looking back to WarrnamboolOctober 17, 2008 |
 Looking back from the end of the lineOctober 17, 2008 |
 End of the line, Merri River bridge just visible in backgroundOctober 17, 2008 |
 End of the lineOctober 17, 2008 |
 Down end of the loop siding at DenningtonOctober 17, 2008 |
 Down end points of the loop looking towards the baulksOctober 17, 2008 |
 Points for the lifted siding into the factoryOctober 17, 2008 |
